BATON ROUGE - Superintendent candidate Krish Mohip has withdrawn his application to lead the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, leaving two finalists.

Mohip, chief education officer for the Illinois State Board of Education, said he would be dropping out to take another job on Saturday morning.

Finalists Kevin George and Andrea Zayas will be questioned by a superintendent search panel on Monday organized by SSA Consultants. The pair will be questioned individually by local business leaders and school board members.

George is the director of the LSU Lab School and was superintendent of St. John the Baptist Parish schools for six years.

He says that meaningful engagement with locals is vital for improving the school system.

"They're an essential part of this community and we have to listen to them if we want to truly move east Baton Rouge public schools forward," he said. 

Zayas was previously the chief academic officer of Boston Public Schools. She also worked for KIPP New Orleans Schools. 

Some of her main concerns include student learning loss and school absences. She also plans to ensure quality education among schools by expanding access to specialized programs such as STEM.

"In my first 100 days, I'll visit each of our schools and host community roundtables to understand community concerns and aspirations first-hand," she said.